Meaning at the Movies | I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for “Scream”

When I was 6 years old, I refused to go to the movie theater after seeing the trailer for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” I was so terrified that I vowed to never set foot in a movie theater ever again. However, eventually, my parents convinced me to go back under the condition that I could bring my Sleeping Beauty night light with me. Like a torch against the darkness, that light slowly but surely brought me back to the movies. Somehow, along the way, and against all odds, that scared little girl fell in love with horror movies. 

“Scream” is the first horror movie I ever really truly loved — not to mention also one of my favorite films of all time. From its iconic opening scene, its snappy script and its incredible final girl, “Scream” truly is a horror film for the ages. The film follows teenager Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, a year after her mother’s murder. A masked killer, Ghostface, targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of his killing spree. 

A couple of key terms to understand when talking about “Scream” are “horror,” “slasher” and “final girls.” Horror films are a broad genre, generally categorized as films that are meant to terrify or disgust audiences for entertainment. Within that, there are subgenres like paranormal horror, psychological horror and slasher films. Slashers are horror films in which a killer typically follows a group of people,often teens, and picks them off one by one. Slashers often feature a final girl, the female character who is usually the sole survivor and is left to confront the killer.

“Scream” is meant to be a commentary on many of the slasher films that came before and the horror genre as a whole. The movie is incredibly self aware and throughout the runtime has fun with its subject matter and is meta in a way that is charming and inventive, rather than snide and ingenuine. Because of its commentary and meta elements, “Scream” functions differently for each person who watches it depending on where they stand with the horror genre.

The first time I ever watched “Scream,” I was almost completely new to the horror genre — I had seen maybe two other horror films at most up until that point. However, I was instantly intrigued because there was something propulsive about it. It took itself just seriously enough while still having so much fun — even when I knew little of the genre, it still felt like a film that had been made with so much love, intention and care. This viewing was definitively a launching point into my love story with the horror genre.

Now, a few years after the first time I watched “Scream,” I have seen many horror movies and fallen more in love with the genre — in fact, the “Scream” franchise became the go-to for family movie nights in my house as my entire family worked through all the films. Becoming an avid consumer of the horror genre has only added to my experience when watching the film. Throughout my college career, I have somehow found a way to write at least one paper on “Scream” ever year, and I continue to watch it on repeat. Spending extended time with “Scream,” especially time doing close and critical analysis, has only made me more obsessed with it. 

The iconic opening scene of Drew Barrymore’s character, Casey, on the phone with Ghostface includes explicit reference to films like “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th.” Having now seen both of these films multiple times, there’s a special little thrill in watching this scene and knowing exactly what’s being referenced. 

This is at the heart of what makes “Scream” so fun when you have watched a lot of horror movies — there are so many Easter eggs and cleverly placed references. Some interesting implicit references include the similarity in Skeet Ulrich’s appearance in “Scream” to Johnny Depp in “Nightmare on Elm Street” and the nod to “Suspiria” in the way Casey’s body appears in her death. 

One of my favorite scenes in the entire movie occurs when Randy, Sidney’s friend who works at the video story and is infamously obsessed with horror films, explains the rules of horror to a group of teens at a party. All of this is taking place while “Halloween” is playing on the TV in the room. Randy says that anyone in a horror film should “Never have sex. Never drink or do drugs. And never say ‘I’ll be right back.’” All of these rules are played within the film — as characters live after doing every single one of these things — something that wasn’t common in slasher films of the time, and sometimes still isn’t. The TV moment serves as a wink and nod to the audience, a reminder to watch all that’s going to happen. 

Even as the movie adheres to and acknowledges a lot of the most common horror tropes, it still finds room to challenge and subvert through Sidney Prescott, the main character and final girl of the film. 

Sydney knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to speak up for herself. She carries fight and spark inside of her — she is active, she doesn’t roll over for the killer, she fights for herself and holds her ground. She is smart, kind and intelligent and is shown being a good and caring friend even as she is dealing with the weight of her mother’s murder and the return of a killer to the town. 

She notably has sex in the film and lives — although it still comes with some heavy consequences. Sidney is allowed to exist as a more fully fleshed-out person than many other final girls and is one of the biggest reasons that I am so drawn to “Scream.” Sidney is someone I love to root for. She is a character that I hold near and dear to my heart, and I am so thankful to her for pulling me into the horror genre and the world of powerful final girls. 

All in all, “Scream” is not only an incredibly well-made film — it’s also an important one. If I had never seen “Scream,” I may have never fallen in love with horror — and if I had never fallen in love with horror, I may have not come to love film as a whole in the way that I do. So, at the end of the day, I’ve come a long way from that little girl who was scared to set foot in a movie theater. Somewhere along the way, she decided to be brave, and I’m forever indebted to “Scream” and Sidney for helping me on that journey.